


Eternal Loneliness

by Blue_Flare



Series: Cardfight!! Vanguard Alternate Universe [1]
Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst and Humor, Card Games, Drama, Multi, Not overly detailed cardfights
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2019-07-27 17:36:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16223993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Flare/pseuds/Blue_Flare
Summary: Living in Japan as a foreigner isn't an easy task. Card games can either fix this or make things worse in the long run. Some college students play Vanguard for fun, while others prefer to follow the meta. Team Cross Zone will try to keep their games fun, but unexpected events will cause conflicts, including some team mates losing themselves for the power that links Earth and Cray. Shady players will be present sometimes.There will be regular card games and also card games on motorcycles. Card games in VR are being developed as well, but those won't run glitch free. The game is loosely based on V series reboot version of Cardfight!! Vanguard.There won't be high schoolers, so expect a more mature version of the anime.





	1. Two Foreigners from Elsewhere

Planet Cray and Earth were two distant worlds which were linked together thanks to a popular card game known as Vanguard. None of them could be considered as peaceful considering how some nations were under permanent turmoil, mainly caused by wars for conquering resources. Some people had to leave their countries thanks to the chaos that started after the aftermath of the Cold War, while others struggled with the lack of choices that could be done in poorer countries. They hoped to find a better future in places that were more civilized and stable. However, xenophobia was a big issue in many of them, so their integration was quite painful despite spending years adapting to the local culture.

  
Most players weren’t aware of the link between Earth and Cray, nor knew how this happened in the first place. The cardfighters were rather careless while playing Vanguard, unless they went to regional tournaments. This game was popular at most schools, but many of the students couldn’t afford the popular decks thanks to the price of the rarer cards. Some preferred to have fun duels, while others cared mainly about winning. This group was common between college students and workers, so their clans shifted according to what was popular or good enough for tournaments. College clubs had them on a weekly basis, however those were usually done for fun.

  
Those clubs were full during the weeks between exams, as the cardfighters liked to unwind after those stressful days. One of the few women that played there was using her Nova Grappler deck against other student that played Oracle Think Tank, who was pissed off as her Units rushed her opponent to death. Despite being a newcomer to that college club, she knew most of the usual combos used by Blaukluger Units. The loser insulted her in Japanese by calling her a slut before talking trash about her deck, but his words got lost in translation. She asked in English what he meant, which didn’t help to clarify the issue as the other student sucked at that language. Another student that usually played at the club spotted them arguing. He wasn’t surprised by the incident as that person was well know for being an asshole. The redhead was tempted to make fun of the other guy’s clan choice, since last time he was sure that the bluenette’s opponent dissed girly clans until Oracle Think Tank got good support.

  
‘I bet he picked this clan, because Promise Daughter messes with many clans that retire rearguards, and thanks to those stupid combos done with the annoying deer. Oh well, time to put him into his place without bothering to use my own deck,’ he smirked, approaching their table after he overheard the talk.

  
The redhead decided to translate the comment for messing with the other guy, which implied that the bluenette was a slut that used a broken deck. The biggest irony was that Blauklugers were seen as a subpar choice by most players.

  
Of course, she insulted the idiot in English, which caught the other guy off-guard. “You’re just a son of a bitch that loves to use sheeple decks!” she dissed the other student, which was amusing for the redhead that translated the insult. “Fuck off from this club, you piece of shit!”

  
“Be glad I’m not the president of this club, or I would kick you out for those sexist comments. Really you need to learn some respect, but I can’t expect anything from someone that changes decks like he changes socks and is an idiot that underestimates non meta decks,” the redhead added, so the other guy packed his deck and stormed out of the classroom after he glared at the offender. For him it was easy to intimidate most Japanese students thanks to his height and blunt comments, which usually was a good way of messing with them. It didn’t help that the other student already was afraid of dealing again with the infamous ‘Diekaiser’. Even his new deck didn’t guarantee to survive against guard breaking skills, so scooping before getting another challenge was the safest choice.

  
“Wow, really Japanese guys are rude. I wonder if he called me a slut just because I’m Viet,” the woman said, as she heard about the country having xenophobic people.

  
“I’ve dealt with this bullshit since elementary school, so I can confirm you’re right. They make fun of how I pronounce the names of the cards and of my accent when I ride an Unit. I’ve made a few decent friends, but they’re rare to be honest,” he sighed, guessing that the bluenette spent less time in Japan. “Besides, they’re too competitive, which makes hard to deal with their salt. Oh well, at least is hilarious to use Dimensional Robos and see them scooping when they’re losing against me.”

  
“Good that my career doesn’t seem to be this awful. My parents insisted I studied medicine, but that bored me to death,” she chuckled, remembering the days that she was forced to read anatomy books. “Memorizing muscles, bones and other stuff was hellish.”

  
“Yeah, I would refuse to study that to be honest. I prefer engineering as I only need to remember a few equations and concepts for the exams. Biology was fun until I had to memorize tons of names at school, so I get why anatomy is annoying as fuck,” he agreed with her, guessing she found something better this time.

  
“I’m studying geography now, and trust me, those kids barely know a thing outside of Japan,” the bluenette added, as she thought that only students from USA were so ignorant about other countries.

  
“No wonder they keep calling me a filthy gaijin when I mention that I’m Russian. They think that I’m a mafioso or I belong to whatever shady organization they know about. The truth is that I’m just a nerd that had to come here after my parents struggled to keep their jobs thanks to lack of research funds,” he sighed, as it was harsh to recall those times. He didn’t tell much more as he didn’t know the woman at all, so he omitted for now that his country was falling apart after the end of the USSR. Dealing with money cuts, practically no electricity and other issues like rampant corruption caused by former communist politicians forced his family to run away to Japan. “I hope you didn’t have to also come here in such a dire time. I’m aware that your country also had to deal with messed up stuff thanks to my own country and USA.”

  
The bluenette didn’t say anything, as why she was there was too personal. It involved too many details that were risky to mention in public or were something she would prefer to forget. She wasn’t the kind of person that liked to dwell into those thoughts. “Ah, my family is fine, I only came here as there’s more careers to choose than in Vietnam.”

  
“By the way, I guess I should introduce myself,” the redhead was too caught on the argument with the meta sheep, that he forgot a basic courtesy detail. It was a typical issue for him, as social etiquette was something he thought it was irrelevant. “I’m Aleksandr Volkov, but you can call me Alex.”

  
Of course, he didn’t tell what was the nickname she should use if she wanted to call him by a Russian one, as it was a source of embarrassment for him. Being taunted by his own family scarred him, as they used that specific nickname for calling him a girly guy and a waste of space.

  
The bluenette chuckled, as indeed his name was a pain to pronounce for a non-Russian speaker. “My name is Lumiere Mai Hanh. I wonder if you will also have trouble spelling my last name.”  
Alex took mental notes, being sure he could mess it up later. He asked Lumiere if she went to the club regularly, as he had two friends that usually played Vanguard there after class. Those were his only friends, as he preferred to keep distance from most people.

  
“I come sometimes, but I also like those card games on motorcycles. They’re dangerous if you never drove a bike, thought the fun part is to not crash while you play Vanguard,” Lumiere thought that the regular Vanguard games became stale after playing for too long, while the fast pace and the risk of those speed card games was one reason why she had enough experience to defeat that student without much issue.

  
Japan didn’t organize official tournaments for motorcycle duels, therefore the competitive scene wasn’t big, nor they had special roads for practicing it. The high price wall for getting into them also discouraged many new players, as they couldn’t afford to buy a decent motorcycle nor to modify it properly for playing Vanguard. The rules were rudimentary as well, so they had to keep changing them for avoiding unfair duels. So far, they won points by each turn played, by dealing damage and lost them depending of the damage received during a turn or if they activated a skill.

  
Lumiere was lucky of getting her own one at a discount price and find someone willing to install the programs needed for Vanguard games, as paying college didn’t leave her with much disposable money for her hobbies.

  
“Hm, I actually remember some classmates trying them at high school. Their bikes were quite cheap, so they broke after a while. They also had to be careful as they were doing it illegally as none of them had a motorcycle license,” Alex didn’t tell he got involved in those stunts, as it was something he wasn’t proud about. At that time, it was a bad escape of his problems, but now he would think it twice before participating in a riding card game.

  
“I have my own one, so I won’t get caught by the police. My main worry is to not get caught driving too fast, as I’ve heard that the policemen are very strict about transit rules,” she sighed, remembering that in Vietnam things weren’t as regulated as in Japan.

  
“Since you mentioned non-standard games, some people at my faculty are working on a virtual reality program for Vanguard. It’s currently a very primitive version as it glitches a lot and there’s not a big database of decks for public use. You can add custom decks, but you need to code the cards that are missing, which is a pain in the ass,” Alex tried to use his own one, but they hadn’t figured out yet how to add all imaginary gifts without generating bugs in the process.

  
Lumiere thought about the project, liking the idea of playing without spending tons of cash on new cards. She commented that she could be a beta tester if that group needed some later, as she loved to try new things. “If you need ideas for customization, I can ask my customers at my work if they are interested too on that program,” she wondered if she could drag one of her coworkers into it, as she knew that at least one of them played Vanguard.

  
“Anyone can help for sure, and the idea is to make this a cheap option. The developers don’t want that this becomes an elite sport like speed games, as the idea is that you will only need your deck, an ID and access to a computer that can support the VR system. Probably you will connect to a main server that supports it, so technically any laptop can do the trick,” the redhead commented based on the information he got from the group, knowing that they were also concerned with the safety for avoiding it being hacked as soon as it was ready. “However, the biggest issue is making it safe, as nobody wants to risk to see players getting hurt by the simulator.”

  
Alex forgot that he had to go soon to class, so he had to abruptly cut their conversation. “Shit, next class starts on less than ten minutes. If you want we can play Vanguard later.”  
The redhead picked his bag and ran away, wishing that the professor wouldn’t come to the classroom before the scheduled time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should give a glimpse of the protagonists of this fic. The rest of the team will be introduced during the next chapters. If you have any questions feel free to ask. This fic won't update soon as chapter 2 isn't written yet. Some OCs like Lumiere and others that will be introduced later belong to Mystayre, so when they're mentioned I will update the list.
> 
> The doodle added now was drawn by Mystayre.


	2. Unlucky Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex's day continues after meeting Lumiere, realizing how his attitude towards others can get him into trouble.

Alex managed to find the classroom in time, avoiding being yelled at by the professor. He didn’t want to lose any second of the electromagnetism class, commonly known as ‘electromartianism’ by the students of the electrical engineering courses. It was one of the hardest classes, therefore the future engineers complained about how bizarre most of the equations were and of how easy it was to fail it.

The redhead wrote down all graphs as fast as he could, since the professor didn’t leave much time before filling again the blackboard with triple integrals and other formulas that would confuse most laymen. He was lucky of getting a glimpse of this by reading his father’s university texts, which despite being outdated helped him to not be brutally murdered by the amount of jargon and alien looking equations.

Some of his classmates asked basic questions to their professor, who didn’t bother addressing them after considering them as something that they should have learnt in calculus and the basic physics classes.

However, memory was a frail thing and most students barely planned their study schedules beforehand. This led to crunch and chronic lack of sleep, which was masked by coffee abuse and taking some substances that weren’t exactly legal. Modafinil was one of the main choices of Alex’s classmates, who forgot everything they learnt after writing their exams.

“Why the fuck do you keep taking that med?” the redhead shook his head when he spotted a classmate near him checking a modafinil box, as he couldn’t grasp the worth of drugging himself for the sake of perfect grades.

The professor told the redhead to shut up as his question could distract the other students. It was also seen as illegal to resort to drugs for passing classes, so definitely that classmate was in trouble thanks to his sudden comment. Probably this guy would get a lower grade or risk to not pass at all for unethical behavior.

The class ended around one hour later, after which Alex was done with school for the day. He bet that the classmate would want to punch him for being a loudmouth, therefore he disappeared as fast as he could from the classroom.

Anyway, he had to go to his part time job after college, so he had a good excuse for avoiding the angry guy that got into deep shit thanks to his unfortunate question. He went immediately to the nearest subway station, so he wouldn’t come late to his shift.

He didn’t have many options for affording to live alone and buy cards regularly. He lived with his father until a certain incident led him to be kicked out of his home, and even if he managed to get a school loan for renting an apartment after confirming he got no support from his parents, he didn’t have enough cash to pay all his bills and food.

The redhead found that one of those computer shops needed part time workers, so he picked it as it was less annoying than working at a restaurant. He thought first to try his luck at a mall shop, but the horrible music and the crazy amount of people shopping drove him away. Computer shops weren’t as popular as other stores, since many Japanese people preferred to buy cellphones instead.

However, he wasn’t safe from dumb customers at all. The worst part was dealing with complaints about broken computers that weren’t caused by manufacture defects, but that happened by people spilling their drinks or mistreating their laptops. Some had pet bites, especially on the laptop chargers or had other damages caused by cats that used them for napping and as chew toys.

He cringed at the sight of some virus ridden ones that clearly were used by people that had no idea about basic internet safety practices. The worst sight were web browsers that had so many toolbars that it was impossible to properly read any webpage, which usually was caused by watching porn, downloading music and visiting shady streaming sites for watching series.

It didn’t help that informatic literacy was pretty bad in Japan, so he needed a lot of patience for explaining things with his funny accent. When the customer couldn’t understand him at all, he would write down the instructions instead. Sometimes he added other advice, but he asked to not mention when he wrote down specific programs for fixing computer issues as that was seen as propaganda by his boss. He tried to only do this with free ones as many licenses were unaffordable by most customers or the paid versions didn’t bring much more options that were useful.

Alex texted one of his friends while he took the subway for going to his job, mentioning he may not get many customers as those were dead hours. His friend sometimes visited him during his work time, as he got bored when there wasn’t anyone buying computers nor someone leaving their devices to be sent to tech support.

The redhead sometimes traded cards and played Vanguard with his friend when his boss wasn’t around. Alex also asked when his friend’s band had any concert soon, since Kouta’s band wasn’t that popular now. Any ticket that got sold was needed for paying new instruments and having money for recording their music. Pop idols sold extremely well, while more niche genres struggled to get enough attention from mainstream public. Their main saving grace was to be picked for next world tournament opening show, which paid well compared to their sporadic concerts.

One hour later, Alex reached the computer shop. He didn’t remember that some new laptop model launched today, so he sighed at the sight of a long queue. That implied he had lots of customers and he didn’t plan to deal with that amount of people at once.

‘Not this shit again. Don’t tell me that the damned bitten fruit brand released another redundant update for their laptop series,’ he stared at the desperate fanboys of that brand, shaking his head as the brand was a huge money drain.

He was glad that his shop didn’t sell cellphones as well, or release days would be a nightmare for him.

‘Sorry man, but I forgot there was an important release today. I won’t be able to talk much, unless you don’t mind helping here to deal with a horde of rabid bitten fruit fans,’ the student texted his friend, warning the other guy about the mess that happened at the shop.

Kouta didn’t mind the problem, as he could have fun laughing internally at the people that did worse life choices compared to his own ones. The purple haired guy didn’t like show offs, and most of them loved to spend ‘disposable’ money on useless purchases. Since he couldn’t afford good OS, he preferred to rely on open source OS as those worked on old computers and usually could be downloaded for free.

Alex also decided to pick those and ditch Hasta la Vista 3.0 for good, as most of the updates broke his system too many times despite taking drastic measures for minimizing the damage. He was aware that bitten fruit OS was good, but the price tag was ridiculously high compared to a regular laptop that ran open source OS.

Most people had no choice and they kept buying Hasta la Vista powered computers, so the redhead had to explain to them that it needed to be defragged regularly, and sometimes it was better to reinstall the whole OS if the computer was too slow. The saddest moments happened when anxious customers brought them when they only needed slight tweaks for working properly again.

Kouta arrived at the store while Alex was still busy with many fanboys, so he used that chance to distract the rest of the customers by randomly showing other laptops that were nearby. He didn’t bother showing the specs of the computers, as he was busy promoting his own band. Some customers didn’t mind it, while the rest decided to go back to the queue instead of wasting their time watching music videos.

Alex glared at his friend, shaking his head. “I thought you would actually explain them the details,” he wasn’t amused by the purple haired guy’s antics, as that could get him in trouble if his boss appeared.

“This store lacks music, so I think it’s good I’m showing some clips,” Kouta was tempted to pick his guitar for a live show, but the redhead didn’t approve that at all.

“Do you think that those fanboys have decent musical taste? They probably listen to J-pop or idol shit,” Alex retorted, knowing that his friend’s attempt would fail epically.

The guitarist realized his mistake, as most nerds weren’t fan of visual kei nor anything similar. “I don’t get why they prefer those moeblobs to be honest.”

“You know, those dumbasses can’t appreciate anything that’s not cutesy or acts like a damn 2-year-old. That’s the sad truth from what I see at my college. They can’t handle anything that isn’t pathetic,” the redhead sighed, being annoyed by the lack of diversity.

“Well then, I should ask Rui what we should do if even nerds prefer garbage music. Hm, maybe goths are the best option at this point,” the purple haired man scratched his head, realizing how bleak things looked for his band if a big chunk of Vanguard’s player base preferred pop idols.

“Maybe you will have a better result with fujoshis, as they seem to love pretty boys,” Alex said in a snarky tone.

“Should we perform then some subtly gay acts on stage? I hate to be forced to do that for pleasing the audience. It will come out as extremely fake and that’s not something that Rui will approve of,” Kouta didn’t know what to do with that information, feeling ashamed by the fact that his band may need to sell out a bit.

“You can try it, but I suspect it’s enough to have pretty boys. That’s the easiest way and doesn’t require for you to do anything lewd with Rui or Miura. So yeah, just bring the flashiest attire and act in a teasing way,” the student commented before a customer wanted to buy a bitten fruit laptop.

The guitarist had a crisis while his friend was busy checking the laptop after the customer purchased it. He was so embarrassed by the advice he decided to leave the store before Alex could mention more snarky remarks.

‘I didn’t remember he was powered by the Dead Inside processor,’ the redhead thought, hoping that Kouta wouldn’t try to murder him at the card shop.

His train of thought got suddenly interrupted when he got a text message from Lumiere. She asked him if he had time to check her laptop, as it was malfunctioning.

‘I’m busy at my part time job, but you can bring it here if it’s a model that’s sold at the store’ he texted her back.

‘Uh, my issue is that the cause of the malfunction is not something I would want to be seen in public. Can you come to my dorm to check it? :3’ Lumiere answered quickly.

‘Is this a thin veiled booty call?’ he texted back, suspecting of her intention.

Lumiere wasn’t amused by his reply, so she refused to text him. She felt offended by his remark.

‘Eh, whatever. I guess today is the piss off everyone day,’ he thought at the lack of feedback, so he guessed she got pissed off. Probably Lumiere and his friend would want to kick his ass as soon as they saw him again.

His shift ended during the night, so he had no energy to deal with angry people. He took the subway for going back to his apartment, wondering if he would be wrecked at the next tournament for his tactless attitude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should give a better idea of Alex's personality compared to the first chapter, and one of his older friends also got introduced. The doodle for the store scene was doodled by mystayre.  
> Next chapter should include cardfights.


	3. Karma Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every action has a reaction of an equivalent force, aka whatever you do, it can backfire badly.

Alex was tired after the tedious work day, so he only checked if he had any pending homework as soon as he was back at his apartment. The redhead verified as well that Lumiere hadn’t texted him back at all, guessing that his ability to push people away was intact.

He recalled that he started acting like a jerk with most people that tried to befriend him during his high school days, probably as a reaction of being abused by his relatives and school bullies. For him it was easier to keep people at arm’s length, as that way they had less chances to know him well and exploit his weaknesses.

In a sense, it wasn’t strange that Daikaser worked decently with him. Mecha anime was his escape as a kid, as the science fiction world helped him to disconnect himself from the daily harassment done by his mother and sister. His father was less of an asshole, until his sister outed him in public after she found out some women’s clothes inside his closet. Since that day he was seen as scum by his whole family, who cut all ties with him as they couldn’t understand why he was a crossdresser.

He despised Pale Moon thanks to that incident, specially any Luquier based deck as that one was played by his younger sister. The redhead couldn’t avoid to brutally finish off his opponents if they dared to challenge him with Silver Thorns. For some reason he could trigger the guard break skill without problems, probably fueled by his hatred of that elf.

Kouta was his only confidant at the moment, as the purple haired guy also dealt with messed up things that lead him to drop out school. He had no clue if Lumiere also got a bad hand in life, so he preferred to not burden her with his own issues.

The redhead picked some pizza slices from his fridge, eating them as soon as he reheated them. He wasn’t in the mood for getting anything healthier, besides some fruits for dessert that he only had to wash before.

He ordered his bag and clothes for the next day, deciding to go to sleep earlier as the work load of his part time job exhausted him.

College was as tedious as always, thanks to the amount of formulas that appeared daily. Exams were soon, which implied that the professors would give mainly examples of possible problems. Of course, those were way easier than the real deal.

Alex wasn’t dumb, so he also solved most of the problems that appeared on the textbooks. Some professors were lazy enough for using those with some modifications for messing with the students that never bothered to do extra work.

He hesitated to go to the card games club, dreading to see Lumiere after yesterday’s fiasco. The student guessed she would roast him for daring to ask if she was tricking him into a booty call when she asked for help.

Considering that risk, he decided instead to go to the cafeteria. He hoped he wouldn’t find her there. However, he didn’t know about Lumiere’s nocturnal study habits.  
The redhead decided to buy soda and some candy, but he stopped walking as soon as he saw someone familiar. The bluenette looked like a raccoon holding a huge coffee cup, who was so tired that she only glared at Alex for being useless.

“I swear that you’re a dead man the next time I see you. Be ready at the club as soon as I’m done with my exams,” she hissed, drinking the coffee for not falling asleep.

“Uh, good luck. Try to not pass out while writing them,” he sighed, wondering how she could function at all. Her bitterness was so evident that even in her half dead state she threatened him.

“I don’t need your pity, shitty nerd. Now get out of my way before I throw the coffee at you,” she glared at the redhead. He moved as fast as he could as he didn’t want to end with a third-degree burn.

He was amazed by how her temper went down the drain so fast. He bought a soda can and sweets and ran for his life. ‘Mental note: never approach her when she survived to an all nighter. The risk of being harmed is too high.’

Alex went to another classroom, trying hard to not fall asleep as the professor spoke in a monotonous way. The guy was so old that he wondered if there won’t be a moment when the professor just fell apart or had a heart attack during class.

Some classmates were so bored that they threw paper planes and exchanged messages. The professor didn’t notice the distracted students, as he had poor eyesight.

The class stopped half way as the old man was too tired for talking anymore. The professor just gave some exercise guides for the exam and decided to finish it earlier. Most of the students went to the library for getting done with their homework, so they wouldn’t need to worry about it later.

The redhead decided to solve the guide as well, using that chance for checking if there were any books that he could read for his exams. He spotted some people napping on the tables, therefore he picked one where he wouldn’t disturb them.

Lumiere was one of those students that couldn’t avoid falling asleep. The coffee wasn’t strong enough. She used her bag as an improvised cushion. However, the background noise was too loud, ruining her nap.

‘Why doesn’t the librarian tell them to shut up. Seriously this is worse than trying to sleep at my former college,’ the bluenette thought, being half asleep at the moment.

She had a pile of books to read, but her mental state forced her to shut down. Reading geography information until 6 am wasn’t the best idea, as she barely could remember the names and concepts that she saw during her crunch session.

The tired student overheard someone talking loudly near her. She glared at the person, noticing that the offender was probably a foreigner. She guessed the other woman was a hipster, thanks to the vintage clothes and the prepotent attitude.

“Excuse me, but could you go chat outside? I haven’t slept at all.” Lumiere hissed at the other woman.

The blonde woman laughed at the bluenette, mocking her for not being able to study in an orderly way. “I doubt that a lazy bitch like you will ever finish her undergrad,” she replied in a Japanese with a heavy German accent, so the bluenette didn’t fully understand the insult.

“Whatever, I don’t care about your judgmental bullshit. Please leave or I will call the librarian,” the sleepy student retorted, being done with the other woman’s annoying attitude.

The blonde woman didn’t risk getting banned for bad behavior, so she left with her obnoxious friend before Lumiere could get them in trouble. “Tch, you won this time, bitch.”

The tired student continued her nap, snoring after finally having some peace. She used an open book for hiding her bad state, so nobody could disturb her again.

The bluenette had no idea she would get soon a chance to put that asshole into her place. The blonde student played Genesis mainly, as she liked the mythical aspect of those Units. Who would imagine that a shy Regalia wielder ended working with a diva from all people that could be her Vanguard.

About that card game, Alex went to a card shop after being done with the school problems. There he usually played with people that didn’t go to his same university and with his friend.

Kouta hung out frequently with Kairi, who was his girlfriend. She worked as a counselor at Alex’s university, so sometimes he spotted her at the club as well. It wasn’t restricted to students only, therefore university employees had the chance to play Vanguard without getting disapproving glances from random people.

The redhead was aware of the stupid comments he said to his friend. He was ready to get his punishment during a Vanguard game, as that was their way to solve disagreements.

They picked a table on the zone that wasn’t crowded, as the noisy kids would distract them during their card fight. There was no need to openly state what they had to do, so both placed their starting Vanguards face down.

Alex was glad that Kouta refused to play Zanbaku, as the guitarist thought it was an unfair Unit. He preferred to combine Mandala Lord with Musashi for a different kind of painful experience.

Murakumo had no actual beef with Dimensional Robos in Cray, so this fight wouldn’t have much impact on their planet. At most it was only sparring that could be useful in case a third party invaded their territories. The real problems were stirred by Dark Irregular’s plan to slowly conquer Unisan territory and the conflicts between Shadow Paladin and Royal Paladin. Gold Paladin preferred to not get involved as there was a rivalry between Blaster knights.

Their starting Vanguards were Cat Devil and Goyusha, which had the same skill. Alex went second, as he knew it would lower his chances of winning. Murakumo was good at cloning Units and rushing, while Dimension Police focused more on their Vanguard.

From the Unit’s perspective, it was easier for the stealth beasts and dragons to hit than for Daikaiser’s army. The ninjas dodged the robot’s shoots and slashes without much issue, while they struggled with aiming at their nimble targets. The beasts figured out the weakest points of the robots, striking where it hurt the most.

This was mirrored by their drive checks. Alex didn’t get damage triggers, which made easy to keep rushing. The biggest issue was that Daikaiser’s power could be only unleashed when other Unit rode him, otherwise he was practically a vanilla Vanguard.

“Tch, seems like Daikaiser also disapproved of my comments. He’s being especially uncooperative today,” the redhead was annoyed at his bad drive and damage checks, while Kouta’s Units got front triggers at the right moment.

Thanks to the amount of accel circles and good trigger luck, the guitarist didn’t have trouble with Daikaiser’s base power, as usually one defensive trigger was enough for stopping his attacks.

“Now you don’t need to worry anymore. The punishment game went as expected,” Kouta grinned when Alex placed his sixth damage. The redhead was relieved after their game, knowing now that only Lumiere would want to destroy him.

“Well, this was less humiliating than losing to Zanbaku. Your Units play fair, and mostly scrubs use that dragon from what I’ve noticed,” the student sighed, feeling exhausted after being wrecked so badly. “With my horrible luck I bet I wouldn’t drive checked a single Grade 3 even if I could use Daikaiser’s effect.”

“Musashi was brutal today. Nothing better to attack with him after getting a few triggers,” the purple haired man smirked. That ninja contributed greatly to Daikaiser’s humiliation conga.

“Yeah I know that’s one of your killer tricks. Despite that, this was less annoying than to deal with those bitten fruit fanboys,” the redhead didn’t want to remember yesterday’s hellish work.  
Alex got distracted by his cellphone, checking that he got a message from Lumiere.

“Where the fuck are you? I thought you would go to the club today,” she was still a mess, but her spite kept her awake.

“Sorry, but I’m at another card shop. I had to solve other issues, so your revenge will have to wait,” he texted back quickly.

“Never mind, I had to deal with a bitch at the library and I just spotted her here. I guess I can fight her instead,” the bluenette wrote as she saw the blonde student at the club.

“Have fun then. I wonder what deck she may play,” Alex was curious as it was likely he may meet that person later.

“I will tell you later. She’s not playing so this is my chance,” Lumiere replied, as she hated to waste her opportunities.

“I’m safe for now. Hm, maybe we should check if there’s any tournament today,” the redhead suggested to his friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the first cardfight that I detailed more, however I didn't want to put much technical stuff as I don't play any of those clans. Also, the newcomer may or may not end being Lumiere's rival later.  
> Next chapter will depend of how busy I am, so updates may slow down according to work load.  
> The doodle of this chapter was drawn by mystayre.


	4. Goddess of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first full fight of Lumiere, this time versus an United Sanctuary player that uses an unknown deck. Will she be able to figure out how to counter it in time?

Lumiere approached the blonde student, not caring at all if she looked like a dead woman. She wanted to destroy the person that didn’t let her rest properly at the library.  
‘That fucking bitch will be my punching bag today. Time to use the most brutal combos that I’ve tried so far,’ the bluenette radiated spite while she walked towards the graduate student, who acted like she didn’t recognize the raccoon looking woman at all.

Lumiere had no clue that she would do a big mistake soon. She was too restless for realizing that her brain wouldn’t work properly against an unknown player. The bluenette guessed that the annoying woman played Oracle Think Tank, considering that she overheard the blonde student mentioning history topics.

The other foreigner was amused by Lumiere’s insistence to set their score, when for her talking loudly on a library was something that wasn’t uncommon in some German colleges. “Why are you making a big fuss? You should go home if you’re barely awake,” the blonde graduate student commented sarcastically.

“You really talk like most Oracle Think Tank players that I’ve fought against. Either they’re sheeple or pompous assholes like you. I just want to show you that you shouldn’t underestimate someone, just because they’re still not done with undergrad,” the bluenette was tempted to throw coffee at her, but she had no drink at the moment.

The other student smirked, knowing that she would have fun messing with Lumiere. “Oh really? I may really like history, but that’s not the only clan with mythical Units. You will see soon what I mean.”

“Fine then, I don’t care if you play some weird ass clan that nobody else likes,” the bluenette picked her deck, putting her starter face down. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Madeleine. Why do you ask?” she guessed that it was just basic courtesy from the bluenette’s part, but she was tempted to keep messing with her opponent.

“That’s a secret~” Lumiere answered mischievously. Her plan was to tell about the bitch later, so other people could kick her rude ass. “By the way, I’m Lumiere.”

After introducing each other, both flipped their starting Vanguards. The geography student couldn’t recognize her opponent’s Unit, so she wondered about what kind of tricks she may have to deal against.

Madeleine grinned when she confirmed that she had to fight versus an Accel clan. Her boss had a special skill that made easy to adapt to other clans, as the effect depended of the trigger that she chose for triggering that skill. Lumiere flipped a coin, getting the right side for starting first.

Her plan was to rush her enemy as she had no way to know if she was facing a specific type of gift, at least until riding a Grade 2. Madeleine no guarded most attacks, keeping her hand for when Lumiere got at least one Accel circle ready.

The blonde student rode Shitateruhime, using her skill to reduce a soulblast cost. Then she called Sahohime, using her skill for putting a critical trigger after drawing two cards. The bluenette was afraid when her opponent declared that Sahohime increased her power by 15000, noticing that Madeleine only had to spend two counterblasts for getting more hand and getting a beatstick ready.

‘This doesn’t look good at all. What the hell is she planning to do with that critical trigger?’ Lumiere thought, as seeing that madness implied that something way worse was coming for her next turn.

“I see that this is your first time facing my clan. It’s interesting that you’re taking your time to see how to guard this. Maybe you suspect I will do something nasty with the critical trigger I put into my Vanguard’s soul?” she taunted her opponent, trying to mess with the bluenette so she would misplay during the guard step.

Lumiere survived that turn, being decided to finish this right now. She couldn’t let Madeleine get another chance, so she used most of her hand for filling her rearguard circles. “Let’s see if your annoying goddesses can endure this hell.”

The bluenette spent most of her remaining resources for restanding her Units as much as possible. However, she got stopped by a damage trigger. The blonde got enough defense for surviving the remaining attacks, therefore Lumiere felt very discouraged as her attempt was useless. She kept a heal, other card and a perfect guard, but with that she could block at most two attacks. Even if she had a few grade 2 on her field, she had no clue of the horror she would witness soon.

“Ride! Oracle Queen, Himiko!” Madeleine declared loudly, smiling as her victory was almost guaranteed at this point. She assigned the Force gift to a rearguard circle, as that was the best bet in case that Lumiere had a perfect guard in hand.

The blonde student called Iwanagahime to the circle that had the gift marker, getting her field ready for destroying the robots. She called Mihikarihime for reducing Iwaganahime’s soulblast to zero. Madeleine drew a card before placing a heal trigger on her soul, raising her power to 63000. After that, she called Shitateruhime and another Mihikarihime for negating Himiko’s soulblast, using one counterblast with that combo. She powered Himiko up, reaching 16000. Then, she put the dreaded critical trigger from her soul to the bottom of her deck, activating the trigger’s effect three times.

“What the fuck? How the hell is this possible even?” Lumiere yelled, reading the card’s effect for confirming if Madeleine wasn’t cheating. For her bad luck, the effects were correctly applied.

“You realize now that your robots are no match for my goddesses. You expected the defensive skills of Oracle Think Tank, but you’re facing deities that get involved in wars,” the blonde smirked evilly, enjoying how her opponent broke down.

Lumiere used her perfect guard, but the remaining attack was impossible to block for her, and it dealt enough damage for losing the game. Her main’s unit cockpit got thrashed by the impact of one of the goddesses’ last attack, feeling how her body broke down with the impact. Even if this fight was only between their astral bodies, she felt the pain in reality as well.

She confirmed that fighting while being sleep deprived was a terrible idea.

She picked her cellphone, sending a short text. She wanted to talk this over with someone else that could know more how to handle this kind of madness.

Alex heard that he got a message, but he was busy at the moment. Later he read it, feeling sorry for Lumiere. Genesis was a clan that wasn’t that popular at the moment, but reading about how it pulverized the bluenette’s deck made him think if there was a way to slow it down enough.

He texted her back, telling her to better rest for the day. He didn’t recommend picking more fights while she was half asleep and so shaken with that result.

The bluenette left the club’s room, wishing she could kick that bitch’s ass later. She wouldn’t stop until she could find out what was the weak point of that bulldozer. Maybe her opponent just got lucky of drawing the soulblast reducers in time, as she recalled seeing a steep soulblast cost for Himiko’s skill.

The first mistake was starting first, as if she didn’t do that, the skill could activate only twice. She went to the cafeteria to pick food and a drink, being barely awake. Lumiere passed out at the cafeteria table, waking up hours later when the workers closed the shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was shorter, as I thought that adding more would mess with the impact of the chapter. The doodle for the battle was drawn by Mystayre.
> 
> BTW, I would like to know your opinion about the characters, for seeing what could be improved later.


	5. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lumiere realizes many things after getting her ass handed to Madeleine. There will be some sensitive topics during this chapter, specially tied to women being abused by men and some things that show how messed up some societies can be by letting their own people do harmful things to themselves for money (implied references to sugar daddies are part of this warning).

The next day, Lumiere refused to go to the card fight club. She was embarrassed of her defeat, wondering why she couldn’t do anything to stop Madeleine’s Units. Maybe she was just dealing with the fact that Force clans tend to beat Accel ones, but something else bothered her. Her opponent clearly was an insufferable person, so she had to be mentally prepared if she wanted to play against her again.

The bluenette was drinking lots of coffee, texting to Alex in case he had free time for chatting about her brutal loss. The redhead messaged her about a Grand Prix that would start with its qualifiers soon, which could be a chance to move on from her traumatic experience. She was so focused texting that she didn’t notice that someone else was watching her, who was taking mental notes after hearing Madeleine boasting about her win after one of the graduate classes. The black-haired goth woman didn’t comment anything, as she didn’t like to act unless it was strictly needed.

‘Are you sure I will be able to win there? I doubt that most of the players will be weaker than this blonde bitch,’ Lumiere texted back, feeling unusually down. It was ironic that not even failing an exam could mess with her mood that badly.

‘This is the first round, so you should have a decent chance. However, you will need to study many matchups as you won’t have much time to pick your moves. That’s the hardest part of motorcycle duels after all,’ Alex recalled how crazy those games were, having to pay attention to too many things at once.

‘Hm, I’m good at improvising and reacting quickly. Do you know if there’s any info of the people that may go to the qualifiers?’ she texted back, wondering if any pros would give it a shot.  
‘I will ask Kouta if he has heard anything. I only know about some dude from USA that seems to be really good at it, but I doubt he will be on the Japanese Grand Prix,’ he sent the name of the guy, just in case Lumiere would have to deal with him.

‘A Tachikaze player, huh? I’m reading that his ace is that dinosaur that deals burn damage. He seems to be known for having a drinking problem besides being a rock star. I have no clue how a drunkard could be that good at speed duels to be honest,’ the bluenette thought that Alex was joking, but indeed the guy won those games at his own country.

‘I doubt that he drives after drinking booze. Hell, maybe he also has some resistance to alcohol, like Russians are supposed to have,’ the redhead kinda made fun of himself, as he was a lightweight compared to other Russian people.

‘By the way, are you thinking to participate as well?’ Lumiere was curious if he was decent enough at playing that version of the game.

‘I don’t think so. I need to practice a lot and I only got my license recently. If you need a practice partner, Kouta is a better option as he’s used to the format. If I’m participating, it would be on regular games,’ Alex admitted he was quite bad at driving as well, so he would fail epically if he even tried to go to those qualifiers.

‘Well, you could act as my personal cheerleader then~’ she joked, as he could at least help her with the technical parts of the game.

‘I would prefer to be a coach to be honest. I would be more useful in that case, though I bet Kairi wouldn’t mind doing that job. She’s way more supportive than me or Kouta, plus she knows good advice for not being mislead by psychological tricks,’ he recalled that Kairi rarely got riled up during her games, as she detected taunts and other dirty tactics without issue.  
‘If you really wanted to be useful, please fix my laptop. It’s still acting up since I told you about this problem,’ Lumiere still couldn’t forgive that he ignored her when she needed technical support.

‘What kind of stuff did you download? I need to have a clue as there are tons of viruses and other malware around the net,’ Alex texted, sighing as he couldn’t avoid that request.  
‘I already told you it’s something I don’t want to show to any technician,’ the bluenette replied shortly.

‘Ok, I can imagine it’s a bunch of porn then. I hope this stuff didn’t ruin your hard drive, as that will be expensive to replace. I also think it will be needed to clean the issue before backing anything up, for not infecting another drive too,’ the redhead got now why she asked him to go to her dorm. Other people would humiliate her if she sent the laptop to a repair shop.

Lumiere was flustered by the guy’s blunt text. He was right about the nature of her downloads, as it was easy to guess that by her reluctance to let anyone else to fix her laptop.

‘How much I should pay you for fixing it?’ she hoped that the redhead wouldn’t try to scam her.

‘It depends of how much work it is to remove the infection. Since you’re a student, a pizza or two would be fine as payment. That would cover any need of food in case I need to spend hours cleaning that mess,’ Alex loved pizzas, so that was a good trade in his case.

The bluenette spat her coffee with his answer. Most guys would ask for some dirty services in exchange, but this nerd only wanted some junk food.

‘Wait, I thought guys would want something more fun than pizza,’ she texted back, being baffled by his answer.

‘I don’t like anything dirty in exchange, as that would feel like I’m forcing you into prostitution. That’s fucked up in my books,’ the redhead was being brutally honest in his text.

‘Uh, I just thought that something like one-night stand wouldn’t be a problem,’ Lumiere was confused by his answer.

‘My sister does that regularly for getting favors, so really I don’t want to cross that line,’ writing that reply was painful for him, as his family wasn’t against her using her body for profit.

‘I’m sorry, I had no clue about that being traumatic for you. I will raise the pizza offer as a compensation for this,’ she replied, wondering about what kind of horrible things he had seen thanks to his family.

‘Yeah, I may tell you more details later. But short story, she got suspiciously expensive items out of nowhere, which made me suspicious about what she’s doing,’ Alex mentioned briefly. ‘Tell me when you have time for fixing the laptop, as I’m almost done with my exams.’

‘Maybe tomorrow if you’re not feeling well. I can imagine that’s why you avoid your family like the pest then,’ the other student wrote, as she didn’t want to force him to go fix the mess if he was feeling down.

‘Yeah, definitely that’s better. Also, I may have to tell you something that got triggered by that mess. Luckily, I haven’t dealt with it in a while, but it may be useful to warn you in case shit happens,’ the redhead thought that it was also time to mention a nasty secret, which got him the Hell Kaiser name years ago.

Lumiere got curious, so she tried to press a bit to see if Alex would spill the beans about what he meant.

‘I don’t know if you will believe it, but I started hurting people during card fights. I also got hints that normally I shouldn’t get for winning the games. That stuff happened after all the bullshit I’ve dealt with at home, so it died down after leaving that hellhole,’ he summed up in his text, guessing that she would think it was just a crazy thing.

‘Uh, aren’t you sure that wasn’t just stress? I’ve never heard about such thing happening to anyone else,’ the bluenette thought he was joking.

‘Stress doesn’t cause to hear voices at all nor to see people being brutally hurt in Cray…nor I would actually make people run away after fighting them,’ he sighed, as she really didn’t take that warning seriously. ‘If you don’t believe me, Kouta can confirm that I’m not lying at all.’

‘Ok, I really I’m speechless. Seems like card games have some shady side…’ Lumiere texted quickly, having no clue that she would be a victim of a similar power later.

‘Yeah, and since we’re talking about weird shit, Cray actually seems to be real. Otherwise, how the fuck would I hear the voices of the Units?’ Alex added, waiting for another surprised answer.  
Lumiere questioned if he wasn’t mentally ill in one of her replies, as this was getting delusional.

‘Hell, what if a whole new world was under our noses all this time and the search of a planet like Earth was checking in the wrong places? Suck it old farts!’ Alex was too excited by that idea, as many scientists tried hard to do such discovery.

‘That would be way too lucky. Are you sober btw?’ she texted, wondering if that was why he was being so erratic.

‘I’m only a bit tired, I don’t drink when I have to study. Anyway, I guess that killed your boner for real :3’ he wrote back, being relieved if that worked well.

She refused to reply to that taunt, stopping the conversation as it was too surreal for her.

The student decided to leave the cafeteria, as she had nothing else to do there before her next class. The goth that was watching her the whole time waved at her, which was unusual for her apathetic self.

“I don’t want to be intrusive, but do you use a Nova Grappler deck? I heard someone from my class talking nasty stuff about you if that’s the case,’ the black haired woman mentioned bluntly, catching Lumiere’s attention.

“I’m not in the best mood for talking about Vanguard. Why do you ask?” the bluenette tried to keep the chitchat as short as possible.

“You’re not the first person I’ve seen looking like garbage after dealing with Madeleine. She has the habit to destroy anyone to the point of killing their will to play at all,” the goth commented to her, as she was keeping tabs of that issue since a while. “In a sense, she enjoys seeing other people suffering.”

Lumiere was too busy realizing that was the reason why she avoided the club after the fight.

“If you want to keep your sanity, avoid her and other guy called Pierre that plays Megacolony. He’s another piece of trash that enjoys toying with his opponents, and some people suspect he may cheat at his games. Both are elitist and may be plotting to dismantle the club, or at least they’re damn good at driving people away from it,” the other woman warned her, while drinking the rest of her coffee.

“Wow, thanks for the advice. I will tell this to my friends, in case there is a tournament at the college club,” the bluenette wrote down the main clues, so she wouldn’t forget the names of those bastards.

“No problem, I’ve been keeping tabs of them since a while. I may not care much about trivial issues, but this is getting on my nerves. Their attitude reminds me of other people I dislike a lot,” she sighed, as she hated to pick fights. However, she had no other choice if she wanted to play Vanguard in peace.

“Anyway, what’s your name? I’m Lumiere and I’m currently studying Geography,” she asked for getting a reference of who gave her those clues in the first place.

“I’m Sigrid, I’m doing a PhD in Philosophy and I have some classes with that vixen. I’m actually from Norway, and I wanted to leave my country as my parents are too narrow minded,” she summed up why she didn’t bother staying at her former university.

“That does sound too familiar to me,” Lumiere chuckled, as she also left Vietnam for similar reasons.

“Well then, if I see you at the club, I will keep you informed about that nasty pair. Now I have to study and write some essays,” Sigrid threw the coffee cup to the trash, leaving quickly the cafeteria.

The bluenette sent the new information to Alex, waiting for his reaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New characters appeared or got mentioned this time. Later you will see if Alex was being a facetious troll or if he was being honest about his past messed up actions. The doodle was drawn by mystayre.


	6. Technical Difficulty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex finally goes to fix the virus ridden laptop, and there he finds some surprises that explain why Lumiere never wanted to let other people to see that disaster.

Alex hoped that Lumiere would stop her chase. He was being brutally honest with her, as he was afraid of many women thanks to his mother’s abuse. She kept breaking him while he was a kid, therefore he thought that most people would be biased in favor of impulsive guys or the stereotypically silent and strong men. While he was cold to most people, he had issues deciding what to do with his life and not being consumed by his own inertia, which his mother saw as a sign of weakness. He only acted when things really got messed up or he had no choice, specially when he got kicked out of his home. Anger too was a good way to trigger him to act, but he usually regretted his actions when he dared to have an impulsive moment.

For him it was also a relief that he left Russia when he was a kid. The news implied that Russian government was focused on recovering its former power, therefore they wouldn’t hesitate to use anything for winning. First, they did nuclear tests on populated zones, forced their athletes to take drugs for enhancing their performance and polluted many places with their industries. The redhead doubted they wouldn’t use Cray Units if they got the chance of getting their hands on them. If anyone could summon those, then they would be at a serious risk of being kidnapped and trained for doing nasty jobs.

His train of thought got broken by Lumiere’s last message, not knowing that some douchebags planned to ruin their fun. Those players were the kind that he despised the most, so maybe pulling a Hell Kaiser stunt against them would be justified. He didn’t like to revert into that fucked up side of himself, but shitty card fighters deserved no mercy.

‘I think we have to clean up the trash then. I will tell this to the others, so they bring pesticide,’ he joked as the main asshole used a mafia bugs deck.

Next step was to check if there was any deck list of those people for preparing some strategies against them. Daikaiser had some chances of destroying perfect guards, and with Commander Laurel it would be easy to bait those.

‘By the way, you may see what the crazy stuff I told you isn’t bullshit. It will be a perfect chance to also send that motherfucker back to the shithole he came from,’ he added some minutes later, after he figured out that plan.

Daikaser disapproved when he misused his skill against innocent people, but this time he doubted that the robot wouldn’t let him crush the mafia boss. Dimensional Robos may not be as brutal as Metalborgs, but none of them had any respect for Megacolony Units.

‘About less weird stuff, remember to come tomorrow to repair my laptop :3c’ Lumiere replied as she didn’t want to think about freaky ideas.

‘Send me your address or I won’t be able to help,’ Alex replied bluntly, as the bluenette forgot that key detail.

She sent the information quickly, as she wanted to finally use her laptop for finishing some homework. Alex took note of the address in case he accidentally deleted the chat later.  
He had a class during the afternoon, so he would ask Lumiere later a bit more about the computer issue. If she could check the names of the malware he would take less time to get rid of those pests.

Laboratory classes were rather long and tedious when the machines refused to work properly. This time the devices used for the measurements showed weird values, which delayed the experiments for at least half an hour. Some students used this time for doing some homework, talking about funny things or trying to nap while the lab assistant wasn’t checking their tables.

The redhead came out from the lab at least four hours later. He was too exhausted after it, therefore he only wrote down the virus list for doing some research tomorrow.

Luckily, next day was Saturday so he had lots of time for scanning the infected laptop. He told Lumiere that he would go after lunch to her dorm, as it took a while to reach it even by subway and the scans could take hours depending of the number of files she stored on her hard drive.

Alex wasn’t surprised when he saw that her dorm was quite small. Housing was expensive and she only had a part time job at the moment. Being aware of his fear of being closer to people that he didn’t know well, he tried to keep his distance from Lumiere.

“Why are you so shy with me? Did the mouse eat your tongue?” the bluenette teased the redhead, who said nothing.

He was first running a program for blocking the active malware, otherwise the scans wouldn’t do their job. When the actual programs started scanning, he blushed as soon as he saw some names of the suspicious folders.

It was clear now why she didn’t want to bring the laptop to a technician, as the porn that the scan found wasn’t exactly the average one.

“Do you actually watch this? Or you just downloaded it for mere curiosity?” he asked, being sure that most women didn’t like that kind of porn.

“I watch femdom regularly. It’s way better than regular crap as it shows what I like to do in bed,” the bluenette smirked, laughing when Alex looked like a tomato.

Suddenly it made sense why she chased his nerdy ass. She probably didn’t care about macho dudes, as it would only end in stupid fights and her being done with their stupidity.

“Well then, I think that you playing an aggressive deck makes more sense now. You didn’t seem to be the typical shy woman, and your taste on porn confirms it totally,” he still was flustered as hell thanks to this information.

Lumiere grinned with his reaction, as that was what she expected to see. He didn’t run away as soon as she showed her true colors, but just froze at the realization of what she liked to do.

“I wonder then if you will reconsider my offer,” she pushed a bit more, but Alex insisted that it was too soon for trying that kind of fun.

“First I have to fix this mess. You’re distracting me with your flirting and that may make me to accidentally delete important files after the scan,” he told bluntly, as her impatience could lead to a disaster.

She pouted, as she was so close to get what she wanted. She decided to order pizza after her disappointment, as that was part of the payment.

Most of the virus were easy to remove, but the toolbars took more time as they required to uninstall shady programs from her laptop. When he was done cleaning, he told Lumiere to keep the programs and to do a regular checkup in case anything weird happened after checking any shady webpage.

She was so happy that she pounced the redhead, her boobs accidentally landing on his face. He was extremely flustered by that reaction, asking her to move as that made him uncomfortable. Lumiere moved down, feeling that something was off when she sat on his lap.

“Seems like you’re denying what you really want. I detect something that implies you may need some fun,” the bluenette smirked.

Alex didn’t want to see that happening, but his body betrayed him. He hated that rationally it looked like an horrible idea, but he was still on the age where he got aroused too easily. Maybe the idea of being dominated in bed was too tempting and his subconscious did this against his will.

She decided to just remove anything that got in her way, not caring if the couch would get stained. The redhead was amazed by how quickly she did it, being baffled as well as she never asked him to get a condom in the first place. That definitely didn’t add up.

“It’s my idea or something is missing here?” he asked despite being quite aroused at that point.

“Don’t worry, I did a checkup and I have no STDs, nor I can get babies. Seems like you’re not the only weirdo here,” she grinned, as that was a rather rare condition that she had that made her not care if a guy had a condom.

“I hope that you’re being honest. The last thing I need is to deal with surprise kids,” he was wary now, as he never saw any paper that confirmed her claims. He knew that other women got pregnant for getting cash out of their kids, and his career was one that attracted those harpies.

“Do you really think I’m the kind of woman that would want to get pregnant? That sounds like hell to me,” she said before showing a scan of the papers that confirmed what she said before.  
Alex read the reports, feeling relieved as that would be a mess otherwise. He wanted to ask that before, but things happened so fast that this was the only moment to confirm if Lumiere didn’t plan to trap him.

The bluenette realized that he was still uncomfortable despite his arousal. He kept pushing her back, which was different to what she had dealt with when she had fun with other guys.

“I’m sorry for being too reckless. If you want we can go to my bedroom and I can do something less uncomfortable,” that was the least she could offer as an apology for pushing him too far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was edited as some parts of the draft implied a rating change and didn't add much to the plot. I only kept the parts that added to the characterization and didn't sound as bad as Fate's hot scenes.  
> Since I didn't mention their ages before, Aleksandr is 20 years old and Lumiere is 23 years old. School in Japan also doesn't start in April, so as Alex was born in August he's actually older than his classmates, adding that he also had to learn Japanese at school.  
> The doodle was drawn by mystayre.


	7. Game Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Power can be tempting, but the path of least resistance isn't always the best choice in the long run.

Hours after the laptop repair, Lumiere double checked that none of her files got erased. Well, the pizza was still laying on the kitchen table thanks to their reckless moment. Alex recalled that he didn’t even take a bite of it, so he quickly put some slices on the microwave for finally getting a taste of his original payment.

The bluenette was amused by his excitement, as usually he saw him not reacting much to anything, except when he got a chance to roast some idiots. She thought that he was acting like a hungry fox, as he impatiently waited for his food to be ready.

The slices were devoured quickly by the redhead, as working on the repairs and their fun drained lots of his energy already. Clearly his manners also flew out of the window, but the other student didn’t care as nobody else was watching that mess.

Lumiere also picked some food, thinking if it was a good chance for asking Alex to check if there was any weakness that can be exploited for defeating Genesis decks. Despite getting a nice distraction, her loss against Madeleine bothered her.

“Hey, you said that you can hear the voices of Units, right? What if you could listen to my enemies’ thoughts for knowing what they are plotting?” she asked to the redhead, who spit a tomato as soon as he guessed what she wanted from him.

“Wait a minute, first you didn’t believe me at all, and now you want my help so you can beat that asshole? First thing, you only can hear clearly your own Units, anything else is not better that background noise. Second, as far as I know that only activates during a fight that I’m playing, so if I’m watching I won’t be able to know what’s actually going on, and third, I refuse to use that shitty power as it only caused more harm than good,” he glared at her, as technically his skill was a way of cheating the games.

“Then tell me how I can get that ability!” The bluenette was on her knees, nearing herself closer to him as she was curious. She wasn’t above resorting to dirty tactics if that helped her to humiliate Madeleine. “...or do you actually not know how the hell you got yours?”

“I don’t even remember how the fuck that happened, besides me being so pissed at everything that it kicked in. If I had any idea, I’m not telling you as is very easy to be corrupted by that skill,” the student yelled, being annoyed at her pushy attitude. “That shit is a drug, I tell you.”

Lumiere hissed, hating that she couldn’t get what she wanted right now. She would get bored quickly if the way for defeating that annoying person implied actual analysis of her deck or getting newer cards.

“I only can offer to dissect her deck and see if there’s any tactic that can rush well before she can get Himiko’s skill and all the Units for reducing soulblast costs. Anything else is dangerous,” Alex sighed, not liking that the bluenette was acting like a spoiled brat.

Ironically, her desire to beat someone so strongly slowly would let her to get the power that she desired. However, getting too focused on only that idea was an easy way to become a slave of Psyqualia. The power’s actual use was to synchronize cardfights with the events that happened in Cray, but Vanguards misused it for cheap wins and tormenting their opponents.

She stopped her tantrum after noticing that she was just embarrassing herself. Resorting to cheap skills would prove that she was incompetent, while figuring out a strategy could help her to improvise better against other Force clans.

“Look, I get that you are implying that I’m a third rate cardfighter if I can’t fix this by using my brain instead of letting my own Units decide what to do. I usually don’t get this angry at my losses, but...it’s just that that bitch’s attitude just rubs me the wrong way,” she folded her arms once again, letting out a loud, brief sigh. Lumiere recalled that what Sigrid commented to her was true, as that smug vibe was insufferable. “So, if that power tortures people, that will be fun against her.”

“You never learn, don’t you?” the redhead facepalmed, being amazed at her amount of hatred against someone that she barely knew. “I thought that me hating my family was petty, but your pettiness is on a whole new level.”

Lumiere pouted, not liking that Alex roasted her. She thought that having a free day meant to have a nice time, but at the end her short-sightedness bit her ass.

“By the way, if you want to train for the tournament, I can talk with Kouta and Kairi. They have decks that are quite popular and Kouta’s band mates also play Vanguard. I recall that they play Bermuda Triangle, Gear Chronicle and another Dimension Police subclan known as Zeal. That way you can learn how they work in case someone else has those during the speed duels,” he recalled that Zeal specialized on power drain and that Gear Chronicle was one of the few decks that ran Grade 4s.

“One of my coworkers likes Shirayuki, so maybe I can fight her during our spare time. I will ask the rest if they also play Vanguard,” she wrote down the information, noticing that some clans were missing.

“I guess the rest can be covered at the club or at card shops. Personally, at most I’m going to play the normal cardfights as I’m not ready for the other format. Besides, this is a good chance to write down lists for the simulator,” he had that task as a priority, so the database would have enough cards for working properly.

“I hope you get some designers for the levels, or you may make something that’s coded well, but that looks like that ‘graphic design is my passion’ meme,” she chuckled, wondering if the nerds ever thought about that detail.

“You’re right, and customization is another point that needs to be done properly or there will be complaints about all users looking the same. I suspect that the first beta will only include one level as doing more takes time and is harder to debug. When that part is set, then it will be faster to add more places to go,” he wrote on his cellphone the ideas, so he could tell those to the older classmates that were busy preparing the simulator. “I doubt it will be a virtual reality game until there’s support from a company, as that could be very dangerous if anyone got trapped thanks to a bug. The safest would be like those MMOs that let you build a character, but you’re still controlling them with your computer and not with riskier technology.”

Lumiere preferred the virtual reality idea, but if there was no way that only students could build such a massive game, then she was glad that they were aware of this technical limitation. “At least they’re realistic about the project. I bet that other dudes would want to build a huge thing that will fail epically sooner or later, as we know that kids like to dream big.”

“Oh yeah, some of my classmates want to change how the world works, and that’s not feasible unless you bribe politicians around the world, and you know how unreliable those people are. Research too has many limits like funds, technology and raw materials,” Alex mentioned after remembering some stuff that he read about.

“Maybe we can play videogames and see what things are important for making them. Well, you’re talking about a simulator, but even those need also nice music at times and a good gameplay,” the bluenette offered as an option, as she had lots of free time that day.

“Hm, do you think that it would be fun to make a story for the simulator? I remember some fighting games having both arcade mode and a story that’s not exactly related to it. If someone just wants to fight their friends, the arcade is a better option, while if others want to play a RPG they have the chance to do it,” the redhead asked to her, thinking that a short story wouldn’t be that difficult to write.

“If you do that, please ask the literature students for help. Engineering students are so bad at writing that I cringe when I read their comments at the student forums. Really you all need some extra classes for this,” she shuddered with her eyes widen at the image of a story full of waifus with unrealistic bodies, clichés and heroes that came straight from a B series shonen manga.

Alex laughed loudly at the idea, being sure that none of his classmates could plan any decent story. They probably were too busy reading manga, watching anime or thinking about lewd shit after all. “Don’t worry, they already struggle writing their laboratory reports. It’s very rare to see anyone at my class having any talent for literature.”

Lumiere was relieved, wondering then if the dudebros at most tried to do some worldbuilding and write a bit of lore.

“By the way, I forgot to ask you something...wanna be my fuck buddy?” she asked him with a perky grin, expecting that he wouldn’t react well to that offer.

Thankfully, the redhead wasn’t drinking nor eating anything. He froze with her question, shaking his head after some seconds. “Are you drunk? I’ve only done that with you once, therefore, I’m a really bad option for this stuff in the long term. Besides, I don’t think I can entertain you as I have the charm of a fucking brick wall.”

“Does this look like I give any fucks about other people’s opinions? I’m saying this from what I’ve seen personally, not whatever other people may have told you. I don’t care if you’re a weirdo and if others run away from you,” she petted his hair, realizing that it was difficult to be an outcast.

Alex was speechless, looking at the floor without knowing what to do. He was used to be ignored or insulted by most people, therefore Lumiere’s reaction was an unknown variable.

“Uh, thanks?” he still couldn’t compute a better answer.

“I’m being honest with you. I don’t mind if you’re an awkward nerd or if say stuff that's abrasive at times. I actually prefer people who are blunt with me than hypocrites that spend all day asslicking,” she didn’t say more, noticing that the redhead was sobbing at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lumiere's dialogue was edited partially by mystayre, so it would be in character for her. Also, this is after the fun so everyone is clothed in case that didn't seem clear on the chapter itself.  
> The doodle for the speed duel was drawn by mystayre.


	8. Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are slowly getting ready for the World Tournament, so some people use this chance to do shady actions.

The players from the cardfight club slowly prepared themselves for the shop challenges that were done regularly before the start of the national tournament. Anyone that won this even could participate in the World Tournament if they used English cards, otherwise they only could fight other Asian fighters, because Japanese cards weren’t legal on most countries.

Since none of the shops sold the English cards, there was a secondary market that focused on importing them from North America and Europe. The prices of the decks were higher thanks to taxes and the fact that some players did buyouts for forcing price spikes, so their current cards would get an inflated value. Pierre Corbeau regularly ordered boxes from France, getting a steady supply of cards that he didn’t require for his own deck. Even though many students couldn’t afford those, he knew that exchange students would buy them. The main reason was that they only lived in Japan for a few months and it was a waste of cash to build a Japanese deck.

Sometimes the students used both English and Japanese decks during casual fights, as most of them assumed that the players had a decent level of understanding of both languages. However, all shop tournaments required to only play in one format, being Japanese the main option.

Sigrid refused to buy her cards from that guy, as she knew that Pierre used higher exchange rates. Sadly, many meta players were so desperate to get the newest units that they fell for the business student’s trap. She was tempted to mention that scam to one of the counselors, but she needed better proof.

It didn’t help that the club boss never cared if the transactions that were done at the room were legal or not. He was so busy reading information about tournaments that petty money issues weren’t relevant for him.

The black-haired student sighed, wondering if she could trick Pierre in a way that would expose him. However, he was respected by the other cardfighters and many of them were too cowardly for telling anything to the only counselor that played at the club. Even if Kairi was nice, she guessed that the counselor had an aloof vibe that made her rather unapproachable. She had no clue that one of the dudes that played here was friends with Kairi’s boyfriend, so she could ask him to intercede in case that the counselor was too busy.

‘Hm, I don’t know if Lumiere would be willing to help. I should ask her if she needs any English cards for her deck, but I think that none of the latest sets has Blau support. Ugh, and Pale Moon won’t get anything in at least sixth months.’ Sigrid didn’t know what to do, so the best was to wait and see if some dudebro got baited by Pierre.

The philosophy student liked Nightmare Dolls, both for their gothic designs and their tricky playstyle. They hid and reappeared quickly, stomping on whatever Unit dared to cross them. They mainly had the souls of dead Units, which added an extra layer of creepiness to them.

She wasted some time cardfighting, watching around when she was done for spotting any shady transaction. She didn’t bother following the meta, so it was amusing when some guys still lost to the tricky combos of those dolls.

Later more students went to play to the club, as most of the morning classes finished during that time. Lumiere was one of those, and she wanted to release some stress as she had a long exam earlier. Sigrid waved at her, trying to get her attention.

“Do you want to fight?” the bluenette asked briefly, guessing that was the other student’s intention.

“We can, but I have to tell you something more relevant. Here is one of those elitist assholes I mentioned some time ago. I caught him selling overpriced English cards, so don’t bother buying from him,” she whispered, so Pierre couldn’t overhear them.

“Why haven’t you warned the president then? He should kick that dude’s ass and throw him away,” Lumiere didn’t know that the boss was an useless prick.

“I’ve tried before, but he just didn’t pay any attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re friends. I’ve thought about talking to a counselor, but I need better proof of his scummy ways,” the black-haired student sighed, still waiting for a chance.

“Shouldn’t you ask this counselor to come here? If you don’t have anything to show, that person can see that scam by themselves. I’ve heard that there’s one that plays Vanguard,” the bluenette suggested, improvising a solution.

“Hm, that would be easy if that person wasn’t so distant with everyone. I know the one that you mentioned, but it looks like she’s always busy with her work. Don’t you know anyone that can talk to her?” Sigrid wasn’t the best person for that task.

“Who cares? The worst you can do is not trying at all. If you’re worried that she will just ignore you, then you should be more confident, ask her if she can do it and if doesn’t work, you can plan something else,” the bluenette shrugged that off, as for her it was easy to nag other people.

“Oh well, for you it may be natural to bother other people, but for me all this social stuff gives me a headache. I really don’t know to approach someone else that’s as awkward as me,” the black-haired student felt defeated.

“Are you implying that I’m a pain in the ass?” she felt offended, wondering if Alex also thought the same about her.

“No, just that you’re the kind of person that could charm her and ask her to fix this mess,” the other woman was getting exasperated with the topic.

“Hm, if this is not a good option, why we don’t ask someone else to scare that fuck shitless? He looks like a coward, so someone I know could work for intimidating that idiot!” Lumiere planned to drag Alex for that purpose, but Sigrid was afraid that would just make the problem worse.

“We may end being banned from the club if a real fight happened here. Please don’t think about such dangerous measure,” the philosophy student was amazed at how the other woman thought about solving the scam with brute force.

“There’s no need of starting a brawl. We can just kick that guy’s ass with a cardfight and he wouldn’t want to come back again,” the bluenette grinned evilly.

“I will see if I find any duel records from Pierre, for planning this better. I remember that he plays Machinings and that deck isn’t that strong If you know how to counter it,” the black-haired woman took some notes, but it was better to check any tournament data.

While they plotted about what to tell the counselor, a certain Genesis player came to the club. Lumiere glared at Madeleine, cursing something in Vietnamese for avoiding getting caught by the boss. The blonde student ignored her, acting like the bluenette was just another annoying person that was envious of her Vanguard skills. Sigrid told Lumiere to calm down, as starting an argument would ruin their plans.

“I swear that I will stomp her like the cockroach that she is,” the bluenette hissed, feeling an intense desire to kick Madeleine’s ass.

“You can do it later. Better you study her weaknesses, or you will make a fool of yourself,” the black-haired student suggested.

“I’m too impatient for this, I just wanna put her on her place for being such a pompous bitch!” the bluenette yelled, feeling frustrated about not being able to just follow her wishes.

“I think that’s more efficient to train until you can defeat her easily. That way she will regret forever that she crossed you,” Sigrid preferred to deal a single blow that was guaranteed to work than to improvise.

‘Defeat her easily? I wonder if Psyqualia will help me to scare her shitless. Hm, I should ask that nerd if I see him.’

That thought confirmed something bad, which was Lumiere getting obsessed with winning at any cost. If she kept that train of thought, she would be consumed by the power and lose her sense of self. The bluenette was reckless and never bothered thinking much about the consequences of her actions, therefore it was unlikely that she would listen to any warning.

The other student tried to get her attention, as she spotted Madeleine and Pierre cardfighting. They shouldn’t waste a chance to study both elitist students’ strategies and check which cards did they use.

Pierre was infamous for cheating, but it was likely that he would be more honorable against someone that he respected. As expected, the duel was between Machinings and the Genesis goddesses lead by Himiko.

The spectators didn’t notice anything strange during the game, so they got some real information about both decks. Machinings focused on tricky stunts and weakening their opponent, while Himiko could reach high power levels for making difficult to guard if Pierre didn’t have perfect guards or protect gifts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally managed to continue with the fic. Pierre's doodle was drawn by Myst.  
> Things will get nastier since this episode, so be ready for some trolling.


End file.
